Last month, I went along to the Federation of Small Businesses' conference at Curve. The fact that a major business organisation had chosen to hold its national conference in Leicester was a major vote of confidence in our city.

I joined the panel for a question time event with Loughborough MP Nicky Morgan and the Mercury's own Ian Griffin.

I was delighted to be there, because I'm a strong believer that small businesses are a major creator of wealth.

We had lots of questions on the state of the economy, on tax, on energy, but I was struck by how one businessman suggested the Government's "bedroom tax" hadn't been thought through properly.

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It isn't hard to see the Tory-Liberal Democrat Government's planned changes to housing benefits are flawed.

When it comes to the bedroom tax, as it has become known, we have heard many stories of real people who will be discriminated against because they have, for example, broken marriages, grandchildren, children at university or simply because they are disabled.

Across the Leicester South constituency, 748 households will be hit by the bedroom tax, with 3,818 the total for the whole city.

It has not come as a shock to see the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) this week joining the ranks of those condemning this woefully inadequate policy.

Committee chairman Margaret Hodge has warned of the "severe impact" this benefit cut will have for social housing tenants.

It is no wonder so many local people tell me David Cameron's priorities are just plain wrong. This month, about 660,000 people will be forced to pay an extra £728 a year through this bedroom tax – but at the same time, 13,000 millionaires are going to be £2,000 a week better off because of a tax cut.

The bedroom tax will force families to leave their homes and look for smaller properties, but the Government seems to have forgotten that there aren't enough smaller properties for people to move into.

There are few small social properties for families and we'll see the bedroom tax pushing people into the private rented sector.

The Government will end up paying more because uncontrolled private rents will lead to people claiming higher levels of housing benefit.

No wonder George Osborne has made such a mess managing the public finances.

In the Budget, he was forced to admit he is borrowing massively more than he planned, is going to fail to balance the books by 2015 and that debt is up.

But growth is down and unemployment has risen again across Leicester.

At a time when we need to stimulate the economy, the Government is imposing austerity on the vulnerable and it is damaging growth.

Sadly, I can't see much in the Budget to get some of the much-needed growth our economy locally needs, while the bedroom tax alone will result in roughly £2.8 million being lost from the Leicester economy every year.

These are indicators the Government is failing in its economic approach. It is working families who are having to pay the price for the mistakes of our Chancellor.

Ah Jon is back with the economic insight gleaned from his time at HM Treasury advising Gordon Brown (not that he ever mentions it for pretty obvious reasons).
Jon - Leicester is a low-skilled City. Surely you knew that when you accepted the safe seat of Leicester South. Labour has worked very hard over the years to keep wages down through uncontrolled immigration and trap people into dependency and reliance on Tax Credits. You should be really pleased that it's worked so well here?
Save us from your apparent compassion please. People like you created the problem and as your former colleague Liam Byrne said 'The money has run out'. He said it was a joke but I don't hear anyone laughing.

Even the liberal-left act with arrogance, impunity and an absence of accountability. They are just as willing to feed off the taxpayer too. In Leicester, council tax has gone up and council tax benefit has been reduced for low earners and even people on JSA (or ZERO income). But we still have one of the highest numbers of town hall staff in the UK earning more than £50,000. And all council workers now have a minimum pay guarantee of £7.45 per hour out of taxes paid by people earning as little as £6.19 per hour with no pension scheme or perks of their own.
But the liberal-left still see themselves as the vanguard of change... Even though they suck the life from others without remorse or reciprocation and tend to care far more about sculpting a compassionate public persona for themselves than actually helping anyone beneath them on the economic ladder.